The PDT project provides a PHP Development Tools framework for the Eclipse platform. This project encompasses all development components necessary to develop PHP and facilitate extensibility. It leverages the existing Web Tools Platform (PDT) and Dynamic Languages Toolkit (DLTK) in providing developers with PHP capabilities.

Each project should be able to work in an international environment, including support for operating in different locales and processing/displaying international data (dates, strings, etc.).

Localization

Each project should provide an environment that supports the localization of the technology (i.e. translation). This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that strings are externalized for easy translation.

Where possible, projects should use an open and transparent process to create, maintain and deliver language packs translated into multiple languages in a timely manner. The primary languages to consider are: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish.

Themes and their priorities communicate the main objectives of the project and their importance. The following themes are derived from those defined by the Eclipse Requirement council for the Eclipse Galileo release and from the PDT 2.0 release themes. These will be prioritized based on the community feedback. New themes could be synthesized from the requirements submitted by the community.

The sections to follow defines the plan items in the PDT project. The plan items are grouped under the respective themes where applicable. Each plan item corresponds to a new feature, API or some apsects of the project that needs to be improved. A plan item has an entry in the Eclipse Bugzilla system that has a detailed description of the plan item.
Not all plan items represent the same amount of work; some may be quite large, others, quite small. Although some plan items are for work that is more pressing than others, the plan items appear in no particular order. See the corresponding bugzilla items for up-to-date status information on ongoing work and planned delivery milestones.

Features provided by PDT should be simple to use for users with widely-varying backgrounds and skill sets.

PDT User Interface should be consistent and should follow the Eclipse User Experience Guidelines.

Usability and Accessibility reviews should be done for the most common task flows. Cheat Sheets should be provided to assist users in performing tasks